~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Hunter’s Moon ~

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, Report from the Edge of a Continent, travel, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

~ Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#272: Billboards and Signs ~

This week, John Steiner swings the door wide open for us to showcase signs and billboards we have noticed and photographed on our travels. In rural Pacific County, Washington USA, signs are often old, usually brief and always to the point!

On a path from the Discovery Trail toward the beach, someone has kept this collection of mileage signs fresh over the past six years that I’ve been here, and probably much longer!

On my less-travelled-roads journey through eastern Washington last summer, this old Richfield station sign harkened me back to my youth. “Richfield Oil Corporation was an American petroleum company based in California from 1905 to 1966. In 1966, it merged with Atlantic Refining Company to form the Atlantic Richfield Company (later renamed ARCO).” Wikipedia

Before highway billboards, building walls along busy roads were used to advertise products. This remnant from Spokane, WA is an example.

Conveniently perched on a branch in front of a stop sign, this Junco received my immediate attention!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thanks to John for this inviting challenge. There were so many other images I might have chosen, but they will have to wait for another opportunity to shine!

Posted in antiques, history, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature photography, nostalgia, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Chihuly Sunshine ~

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #271: Contrasts ~

Amy puts us to the test this week with the theme of Contrasts. In many ways, photography depends upon contrast for context: light/dark, smooth/rough, curves/straight lines, color changes, color opposites, and the list goes on. My photo selections for this study are images taken this year, 2023. Some you may have seen before, others are fresh from my visit to St. Louis, last week.

With the sun lowering behind a bank of clouds over the Pacific Ocean in January, light shifts from soft yellow to gold on black, as two youngsters caper in silhouette along the beach.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, was on the last week of a Chihuly in the Garden exhibition when my sisters and I visited. This was my first ‘live’ contact with Chihuly glass art, and it was absolutely wonderful to experience the sculptures in a landscape setting. Above, across the Japanese garden pond, Red Reeds, stand in stark color and texture contrast with the evergreens along the shoreline.

As I climbed up the stairs inside the North Head Lighthouse, the lines of railings and steps, plus the view to where once the big fresnel light had been suspended, captured me. Geometric shapes, light and space are all at play in this photo. (Ilwaco, WA)

Bright curls from the Chihuly Vermillion and Canary Yellow Tower, dance upon the bright blue sky; a vibrant meeting of primary colors.

Fluffy soft clouds in the bright blue sky beyond and reflected in the windows of this straight steel St. Louis building stopped me. Catching the contrast between nature’s free flowing forms and man-made structures is a favorite subject of mine.

Through the aperture of a solid brick wall, the Chihuly White Tower shimmers in icy jewel tones.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

A big thank you to Amy, for this challenge and her excellent examples and descriptions to guide our way!

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~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Water Features ~

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ RDP Saturday: Trigger ~

This site and prompt came to my attention through Cee’s blog. When I saw her post, I knew that finally there was a befitting place to feature this photo taken in eastern Washington State, USA.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #270: On Display ~

My older sister and I joined our younger sister at her home in St. Louis, for a get-together this week. Since this was my first visit to St. Louis, my sisters knew just where to take me for my initial day on the town!

What a fantastic walk I had through the history of The Blues! So many photos and artifacts, skillfully placed so that one era logically and gracefully connected with the next. All the time, various blues music circulated around me and there were also some fun interactive displays.

Since my husband is a musician at heart, we have always had a large library of music in our home. Most of the artists on display I had listened to or knew of, and many are in our CD collection.

Chuck Berry
Gibson ES – 355 Bigsby

This is just a sampling of what you can see on display at The National Blues Museum in St. Louis, MO. If every you have the inclination, it is a fine place to visit!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thank you Anne-Christine for the wonderful challenge this week. It gave me all the reason I needed to share one of my adventures with my sisters!

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~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Guess Where I Am ~

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens Artists Photo Challenge #269: On the Edge ~

Patti takes us to the edge, as she invites us to use any kind of edge in our photos for this week’s Lens Artists Challenge. I’ll start with shots of two fledglings, both of the Woodpecker family. They have progressed beyond the edge of their nests to the relative safety of my woodland deck. Both appear quite tentative – on edge – as they seek food here.

Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

A few years ago I started posting “Reports from the Edge of a Continent” with photos taken at Long Beach, WA. The photo below was taken on a morning after a stormy night of slashing rain and gale fore winds. This immature Bald Eagle looked bedraggled and weary sitting on the edge of a driftwood raft.

After the Storm Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

It is a joy to watch Sanderling flocks as they gather at surf’s edge probing the sand for aquatic invertebrates. The feast is best at slack tide when they rush out pecking repeatedly with the tide and then turning tail to troop back with the incoming flow.

Sanderling (Calidris alba)

I featured Brown Pelicans on this week’s Wordless Wednesday. The shot below captures six birds as they coast just above the churning surf, ready to dive in at any moment to catch a meal. Their physical structure gives them an edge over other birds for this method of fishing.

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thank you to Patti who provides wonderful broad examples to illustrate the theme, On the Edge!

Posted in Birding, birds, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, ornithology, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, Report from the Edge of a Continent | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Brown Pelicans on the Move ~

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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